Steel frames have been used previously in building construction but it is understood that their use has been limited to steel frames constructed from thick gauge steel section. By "thick gauge", steel section of 1.2 mm in thickness is intended. It is thought that building construction using steel frames has been limited to thick gauge steel section because the design of such structures has been limited by conventional approaches to building. In conventional building design, the roof structure is formed from a series of triangular roof trusses (see FIG. 3). The combined load of the roofing material and the roof trusses is transferred through the outer edges of the trusses to the top plate of the external walls of the building. The trusses thereby transfer point loads to the top plate. Conventional steel frame buildings have therefore been constructed using thick gauge steel section to withstand these point loads. Considerable difficulties arise in using thick gauge steel section for building frames. The section is difficult to cut and form. Often, the heat generated by cutting destroys the galvanised coating on the steel section. An added difficulty arises in joining the structural members once formed to make up a building frame. Owing to the rigid nature of the thick gauge section, the structural members cannot be easily deformed to fit one within another and must undergo crimping or other special forming operations to ensure that the structural members can matingly engage.
A difficulty with conventional building structures is that assembly of the various elements requires skilled labour. In timber structures, the roof trusses are often constructed by assembling the timber pieces in situ because the heavy timber would be difficult to manage and lift an assembled or partially assembled form. The difficulty of assembling roof trusses in situ is that all of the roof trusses must be assembled to define a plane for the intended roof surface and thus the upper edges of all of the roof trusses must align. It will therefore be appreciated that roof construction requires considerably skilled labour.
Additionally, the preparation of a slab is another area of difficulty requiring careful marking. Otherwise, a slab can be too large or too small for the intended building. A slab which is too large may require removal of portions of the slab whereas a slab which is too small may require further form work to be erected to enable other portion of the slab to be poured. These additional steps will create delays in the construction process.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a new building construction and a new methodology of construction which overcomes or at least ameliorates the above mentioned disadvantages.